Paris Saint-Germain will play a 4-2-3-1 formation against Manchester United, according to reports in France. The French champions travel to Old Trafford on Tuesday evening in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie. PSG will be without injured attacking duo Edinson Cavani and Neymar, forcing head coach Thomas Tuchel to make changes to personnel and formation. Yahoo Sports France claim PSG will play a two-man defensive midfield of Marco Verratti and defender Marquinhos as the Ligue 1 side look to stifle United’s attack. Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba have been in fine form since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over in December and will be hoping to continue their goalscoring streak. PSG are aiming to win the Champions League this season, but have seen their hopes dashed in the wake of several costly injuries.
Neymar will miss both legs, while Thomas Meunier and Cavani picked up injuries over the weekend. Julian Draxler is set to be handed a rare start in the Champions League, while full-back Dani Alves will continue his stint in midfield behind striker Kylian Mbappe. Angel di Maria will play against his former club, but United will hope to gain some sort of advantage over a severely weakened PSG side to take to Paris in the second leg on 6 March.
‘It’s a test for us as a team. It’s not so hard to find the line-up for tomorrow, I have to say. We are very unlucky in this moment to lose big, big players,’ Tuchel said ahead of the game. ‘It’s definitely at least Plan D.’
Starting XI: Buffon: Kehrer, T. Silva, Kimpembe, Bernat; Verratti, Marquinhos; D. Alves, Draxler, Di Maria; Mbappe
